Its held to the valve cover with one 10mm bolt. It directs air to where (on the rally cars only) there is a hole in the inner metal shield of the timing belt area. It is there on the street cars for homologation purposes but isn't functional.

So, on the street cars it does nothing (you don't want to have a bunch of dirt and water getting in there long-term). On the rally cars, it kept the timing belt area cool.

Well I feel like a noob, with your answers. haha. I do understand what it was used for; however, I am interested in how it is directly connected to the cam cover. Pictures of that cam cover by itself would be the easiest way to understand, but I dont know what to search to bring an image up.

athousandleaves wrote:All the second gen engines that I've worked on have a functional opening in the timing cover for cooling the belt.

The RC/CS has the single snorkel and the regular ATA TMIC'd cars have a small rubber boot that directs air into the timing cover after it passes through the intercooler; part number 17971-88380.

That's quite interesting.

I guess I should point out some things to others who replied.This is not my car pictured, I have a 165; the picture was pretty much the only image I could find of that piece attached to the car. I posted just to see where the hole was in the timing cover, and how this "snorkel" attaches to it.